'I can make time for that,' Washington said.
Wohl led the way to his office. Sabara was standing by his desk, a telephone to his ear.
'He just walked in, Commissioner,' Sabara said. He covered the mouthpiece with his hand. 'This is the third time he called.'
Wohl nodded and took the telephone from him.
'Good morning, Commissioner. Sorry you had to call back.'
The others in the room could hear only Wohl's end of the conversation:
'I'm sure Mr. Stillwell has his reasons…
'I checked with the hospital fifteen minutes ago. We're planning on taking him out of there at about half past ten…
'Yes, sir…
'I can stop by your office as soon as the interview is over, Commissioner…
'I'm sure everyone else-No. I don't know about O'Hara, come to think of it. But every one involved but O'Hara has given a statement, sir. I'll check on O'Hara right away and let you know, sir…
'Yes, sir. I'll see you in your office as soon as they've finished with Payne. Good-bye, sir.'
He put the telephone in its cradle, but, deep in thought, did not take his hand off it.
He finally shrugged and looked at the others.
'Stillwell wants to run Matt Payne, the shooting, past the Grand Jury. It probably makes sense, if you think about it-'
He paused, thinking, I wonder why that sonofabitch didn't tell me '-they will decline to indict, and then Giacomo can't start making noise about a police cover-up.'
'It was a good shooting,' Sabara said. 'Stevens-what does he call himself?'
'Abu Ben Mohammed,' Wohl furnished.
'-came out shooting. It wasn't even justifiable force, it was selfdefense.'
'I guess that's what Stillwell figures,' Wohl said, and then changed the subject. 'Jack has polished my rough plan to protect Matt and Monahan. I'd like to hear what you think of it. Jack?'
Malone took the protection plan, which he had just had typed up and duplicated, from his jacket pocket.
Is he trying to give me credit for this to be a nice guy, Malone wondered, or trying to lay the responsibility on me in case something goes wrong!
TWENTY
Matt had been told 'The Doctor' would be in to see him before he would be discharged, and therefore not to get dressed.
'The Doctor' turned out to be three doctors, accompanied, to Matt's pleasant surprise, by Lari Matsi, R.N.
No one acted as if there was a live human being in the bed. He was nothing more than a specimen.
'Remove the dressing on the leg, please,' a plump doctor with a pencil-line mustache Matt could not remember ever having seen before ordered, 'let's have a look at it.'
Lari folded the sheet and blanket back, put her fingers to the adhesive tape, and gave a quick jerk.
'Shit!' Matt yelped, and then, a moment later, added, 'Sorry.'
Lari didn't seem to notice either the expletive or the apology.
The three doctors solemnly bent over and peered at the leg. Matt looked. His entire calf was a massive bruise, the purple-black of the bruise color coordinated with the circus orange antiseptic with which the area had apparently been painted.
There was a three-inch slash, closed with eight or ten black sutures. A bloody goo seemed to be leaking out.
'Healing nicely,' one doctor opined.
'Not much suppuration,' the second observed.
Pencil-line mustache asked, 'What do I have him on?'
Lari checked an aluminum clipboard, announced something ending in 'mycin, one hundred thousand, every four hours,' and handed Pencil-line mustache the clipboard. He took a gold pen from his white jacket and wrote something on it.
'Have that filled before he leaves the hospital,' he ordered.
'Yes, Doctor,' Lari said.
Pencil-line mustache pointed at Matt.
Lari reached over and snatched the bandage on Matt's forehead off.
He didn't utter an expletive this time, but it took a good deal of effort.
Pencil-line mustache grunted.
'Nice job,' Doctor Two opined. 'Who did it?'
'Who else?' Doctor One answered, just a trifle smugly.
Pencil-line mustache looked from one to the other. Both shook their heads no.
Pencil-line mustache finally acknowledged that a human being was in the bed.
'You will be given a medication before leaving-'
' 'Medication'?' Matt interrupted. 'Is that something like medicine?'
'-which should take care of the possibility of infection,' Pencilline went on. 'The dressing should be changed daily. Your personal physician can handle that. Your only problem that I can see is your personal hygiene, in other words, bathing. Until that suppuration, in other words that oozing, stops, I don't think you should immerse that leg, in other words, get it wet.'
'I see,' Matt said solemnly.
'The best way to handle the problem, in my experience, is with Saran Wrap. In other words, you wrap the leg with Saran Wrap, holding it in place with Scotch tape, and when you get in the bathtub, you keep the leg out of the water.'
'Do I take the bandage off, or do I wrap the Saran Wrap over the bandage?'
'Leave the dressing-that's adressing, not a bandage-on.'
'Yes, sir.'
'In a week or so, in his good judgment, whatever he thinks is appropriate, your personal physician will remove the sutures, in other words those stitches.'
'In other words, whatever he decides, right?'
'Right,' Pencil-line said. A suspicion that he was being mocked had just been born.
'Got it,' Matt said.
'Nurse, you may replace the dressing,' Pencil-line said.
'Yes, Doctor,' Lari said.
Pencil-line nodded at Matt. His lips bent in what could have been a smile, and he marched out of the room. Doctors One and Two followed him.
'You're a wise guy, aren't you?' Lari said, when they were alone.
'No. I'm a cop. A wise-guy is a gangster. Who wasthat guy, in other words, Pencil-line, anyway?'
'Chief of Surgery. He's a very good surgeon.'
'In other words, he cuts good, right?'
She looked at him and smiled.
'You told me you weren't coming back,' Matt said.
'I go where the money is. They were shorthanded, probably because of the lousy weather, so they called me.'
'I'm delighted,' Matt said. 'But we're going to have to stop meeting this way. People will start talking.'
'How's the pain?' she asked, pushing a rolling cart with bandaging material on it up to the bed.
'It's all right now. It hurt like hell last night.'
'It's bruised,' she said. 'But I think you were very lucky.'
